Cariad departed her extended home of La Coruna on 26th August 2011 at 0500, fully fueled and mentally prepared! Skipper Martin, Mate Glynn, Head chef Roger, Higher level communicator Julian, and Ever Ready Mick.
From the off we had increasing wind and seas to contend with, sailing at up to 8 knots up and down the mountains of swell (estimated to be about 5 metres) the wind got up to a good F7 but by the late afternoon had eased to a more manageable F4.
The evening saw the crew perking up and returning to life and by the morning food and liquid intake was increasing.
Day 2 saw a mixture of motoring and sailing and general odd jobs being done, one particulary fine team exercise involved a fishing rod, a length of cane, a hacksaw blade a fishing lure and some masking tape...the tool this produced brought down the Spanish courtesy flag from its jammed position below the spreaders without loosing the flag halyard.
Day 3 we started seeing a few ships and having dipped the fuel tank decided we needed to stop for fuel around the Brest area, we decided on Camaret-Sur-Mer and proceed that way, arriving at 0300 in the morning, to the usual arrival GnT's
distance travelled 370 miles, average speed 5.3Kts
GR
Glyn makes very little of the conditions that first day but it really was a difficult seaway; when the waves were big and even curling they were fairly manageble but when they became confused they gave us a fair bashing. Caiad was magnificent and made up for our lack of energy and age. The dining experience was also good as Roger's meals were great and the boys tried some of the wines from the cellars.....
Cameret sur Mer is a nice visit, very friendly and great Breton hospitality. We have had a meal or two now and are ready to leave here at 10ish BST for the 30 or 40 hour leg back to the Solent. Plan is to enter Southsea Marina on Friday after hopefully have a short visit to a Solent port. More then.
Some pics attatched and regrets that we just couldnt get Biscay roaring.
MJF
And of course the £60 kettle! 
Then a sail up the west coast of the Brest peninsular and into the English Channel. Home is about North West and the wind was North West 4-6; spring tides add to difficulty in making ground.....
And some final statistics: We ate the last tomato in Southsea and had a Spanish orange left as a gift for the marina staff - we ate everything else!! First leg Coruna to Cameret (Biscay crossing) 370 miles in 68.5 hours is average speed of 5.4 knots. Second leg Cameret to Cowes (pushing NW half gales in Channel) 232 miles in 46.5 hours s average speed of 4.99 knots. Final hop Cowes to Southsea (a waft and Bucks Fizz) 18 miles 4hour average speed 4.5 knots. So roughly overall it took 5 days to do 620 miles at about 5 and a bit knots. MJF
